American Porter Edmund Fitzgerald Clone (AG)

[ohiobrewtus]

Thanks, I went ahead and went with what I was given. It was not a perfect day, but I made beer. I was off on y boil off, so I was short about half a gallon, but I hit all my temps, and all my gravities. I could not help but drink what was left in my kettle when I was done, oh so tasty. I will be doing a side by side with a friend who came by today to help in a few weeks. He loves EFP, so he will be picky. Should be interesting.

Thanks for a great recipe, Ohio!!!!


Jay8s

Glad to hear your brewday went relatively well. I hope you enjoy it! In fact, I think I'll drink one right now.

 

[KingBrianI]

So I made a 10 gallon batch of this back on June 7th I pitched a starter of WL Dry English in half and a starter of London Ale in the other half and after 3 weeks in the bottle i chilled one of the Dry English Ale version down and gave it a sample. I think this is very close to to Edmund Fitzgerald which is one of my favorite brews. Nice chocolate and malt background. Just a hint of that special b raisin flavor comes through and the nice dry yet somewhat creamy finish keeps you coming back for another sip. This is a very nice recipe ohiobrewtus!! Can't wait to compare this one with the other batch and I think I will go buy a 6er of the real thing to compare all 3 this weekend. Thanks again for sharing!

so how did the london ale batch compare to the dry english ale batch? i'm mainly concerned with which dried it out the most.

 

[KingBrianI]

well, i brewed this recipe today. for some reason i had a lot of problems but in the end it came out ok i think. could only find pale chocolate locally so used that and used UK pilgrim hops for bittering and UK challenger hops for the flavor and aroma additions. pitched a 2L starter of wyeast 1098 and the airlock was going within a couple hours. hope it turns out well. smelled pretty good!

EDIT: oh yeah, used maris otter as the base grain. between that, the pale chocolate, and different hops it might have a slightly different character than the original recipe.

 

[jay8s]

I just kegged this today. It tasted so wonderful when I took a sample. hopefully this will last til SWMBO's birthday in two weeks. On to my Chocolate Hazelnut Porter.

THANKS AGAIN OHIO!!!!!

 

[sonetlumiere85]

I heard they use Wyeast 1028 for this recipe. I'm leery of using special b in an american robust, though. Does it really add anything closer to the beer being cloned?

 

[ohiobrewtus]

To me, the Special B gives it a bit of dark roast/dark fruit hint. It's very subtle and in the background compared to everything else though.

 

[nowise]

This looks delicious. I am brewing this after my next batch for sure.

 

[krunner]

All I have to say is wow, brewed pretty much this exact recipe(kicked up the 4%ers to 5% and the black patent just a smidgen). This was my first brew AG/extract/period and while it has only been bottled for a week and I just cracked open my first one, delicious, now I just have to contain myself until they are properly finished....

I love EF, and this gives me an excuse to go out and do a comparison .

Thanks for the great recipe , an awesome introduction into this hobby.

 

[jagg]

Hey OB, just wanted to give an update on this recipe, I brewed this on 9-28-08, I put a sixer in the cellar and forgot about it, a couple weeks ago I was digging through the cellar and found the sixer, I thought, wonder what it tastes like 11 months old, put it in the fridge for a few days, and all I can say is wow! That s*&t is freaking awesome man, I dont know if you have ever aged yours that long, but you should try it sometime, I split the batch using S-04 and Notty, these were the Notty strain bottles, anyhow just wanted to tell you how good it is at this age, and thanks for the recipe.:rockin:

 

[RC0032]

Thanks for the recipe...is this really going grain to glass in 4 weeks?

 

[ohiobrewtus]

I think I had 7 days in primary and 14 days in secondary in the original recipe. My beers usually end up in primary/secondary for 2-3 months before I get to them. If you're bottling, this beer will probably be ready at 6-8 weeks

 

[RC0032]

Thanks! Now I have to give this a try.

 

[Mustangj]

Brewing now.:rockin:

 

[jlb922]

I heard they use Wyeast 1028 for this recipe. I'm leery of using special b in an american robust, though. Does it really add anything closer to the beer being cloned?

You are correct with the yeast. The London ale (wy1028 / wlp013) is used in a large number of Great Lakes' ales. See this interview with one of their brewers ->http://drinkcraftbeer.com/editorial...wing-company-interview-with-luke-purcell.html

A buddy of mine also heard it on the brewery tour when he asked what the ingredients are for the EF. Nothing better than one of these on a cold Ohio night.

 

[jay8s]

Replicator in BYO has another try at this brew this month. I think that Ohio has it pretty close. I still have some from last years brew left, so I will be doing a side by side in a few weeks.

Jay8s

 

[rsmith179]

One of my favorite brews! I was very happy to see that Replicator recipe this month in BYO!

 

[Mustangj]

On the money!!

 

[Jaybird]

Yeast....
I have about 7-8 outdated (November 8th) WLP007 in the store. If anybody wants 1 or 2 PM me. Its cold enough out now to ship yeast without ice (unless you want ice pack we can talk) and I think $5 ea will cover Paypal and shipping.
Make a starter and you're good to go.
Just an offer....
Jay

 

[RC0032]

Made this yesterday...came out more brown than black but tastes good so far. Details in a few months.

 

[chase]

I made this yesterday. I had to make one change which was to sub willamette at 60 min instead of centennial. The 60' addition makes almost no contribution to flavor and aroma anyways, so I'm comfortable with it. OG was 1.059.

I decided it was time to renew my yeast after about 20 brews with my old WLP007 pack. I bought a new pack and made a 1L starter. It's going gangbusters on it.

Everything else was spot on. I'll post some tasting notes and perhaps a pic in about 3wks.
Thanks brutus.
C.

 

[sonetlumiere85]

One of my favorite brews! I was very happy to see that Replicator recipe this month in BYO!

Do you happen to have the replicator version that you could post? I'm curious to compare/contrast, and forgot to pick up last month's issue.

 

[motobrewer]

thinking of brewing this up; can i sub cascade for centennial?

 

[ohiobrewtus]

Sure, Cascade would work. Since it's just the bittering addition, there shouldn't be too much of that trademark Cascade grapefruit/citrus coming through.

 

[motobrewer]

Great, I'm sold.

Gonna brew this next weekend, May 2nd. I need this ready by June 19 (exactly 7 weeks), you think that'll happen? I keg, so i was gonna do 4wks primary, 2wks age in keg at 65F, then 1 week to carb.

 

[ohiobrewtus]

That time line shouldn't be a problem.

FWIW - I split my most recent batch of this in half and added bacon in secondary.

 

[Rhoobarb]

... I split my most recent batch of this in half and added bacon in secondary. ...

 

[motobrewer]

Ok, i'm having some trouble here

I can find Briess Black Barley, Briess Roasted Barley, Crisp Black Malt, Crisp Roasted Barley.

Which one do I want??

edit: i figured it out

kind of excited for this. golf trip got pushed back so I'll have time to age it properly.

 

[IPA4ME]

Thanks for the recipe Ohio! I brewed this recipe up about a couple of months ago and it produced one fine porter.

I love the bitter/sweet chocolate notes with just a hint of carmel sweetness, finished with a touch of raisin, just a touch. Well balanced and way too easy to drink....smooooth!

The only things I did different was, I mixed pale chocolate, wheat chocolate and regular chocolate malt in equal parts to 4.00 % of the grain bill. I also added a 1/2 pound of flaked oats and used Safale - 04.

Next time I brew it I will use 007. I used 04 just because I already had it on hand but I wouldn't hesitate to use it again.

CHEERS!!!

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

I brewed this a few months ago and tonight is the first time I've actually tasted it other than at bottling time. The only change I made to the recipe was using 1/2 the Special B that you stated.

I have to say I'm a little disappointed. Not that the beer was bad...it's a good porter. It's just not an Edmund Fitzgerald. EF is one of my favorite porters and I buy it almost every weekend. This seems way too light and lacking the flavor depth that an EF does. I hate to be a critic of someones homebrew though. As a straight porter, I'd concider this a very drinkable beer. It's just not EF in my opinion.

I fermented it for three weeks in primary, cold conditioned for a week, and kegged. It's been aging in the keg for one month as of today. Who knows...maybe the cold conditioning took out some of the flavor that the yeast would have contributed?

Also, I think my water profile may have caused my problems. I use straight RO water with salts/chalks added to reach a 5.2pH.

 

[ohiobrewtus]

I brewed this a few months ago and tonight is the first time I've actually tasted it other than at bottling time. The only change I made to the recipe was using 1/2 the Special B that you stated.

I have to say I'm a little disappointed. Not that the beer was bad...it's a good porter. It's just not an Edmund Fitzgerald. EF is one of my favorite porters and I buy it almost every weekend. This seems way too light and lacking the flavor depth that an EF does. I hate to be a critic of someones homebrew though. As a straight porter, I'd concider this a very drinkable beer. It's just not EF in my opinion.

I fermented it for three weeks in primary, cold conditioned for a week, and kegged. It's been aging in the keg for one month as of today. Who knows...maybe the cold conditioning took out some of the flavor that the yeast would have contributed?

Also, I think my water profile may have caused my problems. I use straight RO water with salts/chalks added to reach a 5.2pH.

If you brew this again and tweak the recipe with better results, please post them here.